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Unexpected Effects of Chitin, Cellulose, and Lignin Addition on Soil Dynamics in a Wet Tropical Forest

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Abstract

Decades of studies on the role of decomposition in carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling have focused on organic matter (OM) of plant origin. Despite potentially large inputs of belowground OM from fungal cell walls and invertebrate exoskeletons, studies of the decomposability of their major constituent, chitin, are scarce. To explore effects on soil C dynamics of chitin, in comparison with two plant-derived chemicals, cellulose and lignin, I conducted a field-based chemical-addition experiment. The design contained three chemical treatments plus a control, with four replicates in each of two species of tropical trees grown in plantations. The chemicals were added in reagent-grade form at a rate that doubled the natural detrital C inputs of 1000 g C m−2 y−1. Despite its purported recalcitrance, chitin was metabolized quickly, with soil respiration (R soil) increasing by 64% above the control within days, coupled with a 32% increase in soil extractable ammonium. Cellulose, which was expected to be labile, was not readily decomposed, whereas lignin was rapidly metabolized at least partially in one of the forest types. I examined effects of stoichiometry by adding to all treatments ammonium nitrate in a quantity that adjusted the C:N of cellulose (166) to that of chitin (10), using both field and in vitro experiments. For cellulose, CO2 release increased more than five- to eightfold after N addition in root-free soil incubated in vitro, but only 0–20% in situ where roots were intact. By the end of the 2-year-long field experiment, fine-root biomass tended to be higher in the chitin treatment, where R soil was significantly higher. Together these findings suggest that soil N availability limited cellulose decomposition, even in this Neotropical forest with high soil N stocks, and also that trees successfully competed for N that became available as chitin decomposed. These results indicate that the major constituent of cell walls of soil fungi, chitin, can decompose rapidly and release substantial N that is available for plant and microbial growth. As a consequence, soil fungi can stimulate soil OM decomposition and N cycling, and thereby play a disproportionate role in ecosystem C and N dynamics.

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Acknowledgments

Jim Raich provided advice throughout all stages of this study and bench space for the laboratory incubations, for which I am very grateful. I also thank: Ricardo Bedoya, Flor Cascante, Eduardo Paniagua, and Marlon Hernández for assistance in the field; Amy Morrow for conducting soil C and N analyses; Terry Grimard for the carbohydrate analyses; and Dan Olk for interpretation of the carbohydrate data and comments on a previous version of this manuscript. This material is based on work supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (Grants DEB 0703561 and 1119223).

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  1. Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, 50011, USA

    Ann E. Russell

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Correspondence to Ann E. Russell.

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AR conceived the study, performed research, analyzed data, wrote the paper, and revised the manuscript text.

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Russell, A.E. Unexpected Effects of Chitin, Cellulose, and Lignin Addition on Soil Dynamics in a Wet Tropical Forest. Ecosystems 17, 918–930 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-014-9769-1

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